CPM draft: BJP main threat, but no tie-up with Congress

The draft says the “main task is to defeat the BJP and its allies by rallying all secular and democratic forces” but adds, “however, this has to be done without having an understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress party.”

The much-debated draft of the resolution had split the CPI(M), with general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his predecessor Prakash Karat differing on their approach towards the Congress. (Express Photo)

Even AS it calls the BJP the “main threat”, and believes that the saffron party and the Congress cannot be treated as “equal dangers”, the CPI(M) says that it will not have either an understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress to defeat the BJP, nor treat the party as allies or partners in a united front.

The party has also ruled out a national-level alliance with any regional party, according to the draft of the party’s political resolution released on Tuesday. The CPM’s assessment came in for criticism from D Raja, senior leader of Left Front partner CPI. Calling the CPI(M)’s political-tactical line “self-contradictory”, Raja told The Indian Express, “On one side, they say the main task is to defeat BJP and its allies by rallying all secular and democratic forces, and then they say this has to be done without any alliance with the Congress…. This is self-contradictory.”

The much-debated draft of the resolution had split the CPI(M), with general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his predecessor Prakash Karat differing on their approach towards the Congress. It comes two months before the Hyderabad party congress, where it is to be presented for discussion and approval.

The draft says the “main task is to defeat the BJP and its allies by rallying all secular and democratic forces” but adds, “however, this has to be done without having an understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress party.” At another place, the draft says, “appropriate electoral tactics to maximize the pooling of anti-BJP votes should be adopted based on the political line of the Party.”

The Congress, it says, represents interests of the big bourgeoisie and landlords, and adopts pro-imperialist policies. “Therefore, we cannot have a tactical line which treats them as allies or partners in a united front.” At the same time, it says, “But it is the BJP which is in power today, and given its basic link to the RSS, it is the main threat. So there cannot be a line of treating both the BJP and the Congress as equal dangers.”

The draft resolution says: “Our tactical approach should be to cooperate with the Congress and other secular opposition parties in Parliament on agreed issues. Outside Parliament, we should cooperate with all secular opposition forces for a broad mobilisation of people against the communal threat. We should foster joint actions of class and mass organisations, in such a manner that can draw in the masses following the Congress and other bourgeois parties.”

Raja, a Rajya Sabha member, asked, “How do you define maximising the pooling of anti-BJP votes? Congress, after all, is a pan-Indian secular party. How can they say that they want to defeat the BJP but not have any understanding with the largest opposition party Congress?”

The Communists lost their credibility long back with the days of Jyoti Basu, Somath Chatterjee etc., and the remains are waste and they are behaving like second rung leaders of Jalra Congress Party and for the sake of few seats the Communists can go to any extent in the name of secularism forgetting conveniently that corruption is also dangerous weapon that was practiced and followed by the Congress and some other Regional Parties and that was the reason they lost their followers across the States in the last decade but still they had not learnt their lessons !!!